Rafael de Cárdenas Adds a Contemporary Layer to Robert A.M. Stern's The Belnord

Hadley Keller

October 4, 2018 at 9:09 AM

"I like these kinds of projects—we don't do them that often—but I like it because they're pretty quick and they allow us to do things we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to do," de Cárdenas says of designing a model unit. "The opportunity to design so much custom furniture is really fun for us and it's a good way to explore those studies of new things." The designer eschewed ornate details in favor of more modern silhouettes and a focus on materiality. "We like the streamlined tidiness," he says. "I wouldn't call the pieces minimal, but they are romantic, which goes nicely with the romance the building already has."

<p>In the main room, the living and dining areas are separated by a pink bench the designer custom made and upholstered in Maharam felted wool. "That pink bench has become our favorite thing," he laughs. "We call it the drumstick bench. It's a custom piece that in an odd way looks really familiar. We were looking to do something that suggests a more traditional form but kind of trimmed up and tidier so it feels more fresh."</p> <p>The Chris Wolston coffee table was a later addition to the scheme. "I didn't like it at first," de Cárdenas confesses, before quickly adding: "But it has a good ending!" He clarifies, "I just felt like I had to give it another look, there was something there. And then I found that we had kind of chosen all these soft shapes and this table with the body parts kind of gave that jolt to the project, spiced it up the right amount. And now we're working with Chris Wolston on a bunch of things." (Chandelier is Apparatus and sconces are Gino Sarfatti).</p>

A second bedroom is the apartment's most colorful space. "My aim is always contemporaneity, but we are not modernists," de Cárdenas specifies. "I don't like all white walls. We like these soft pastels that aren't jarring but do kind of create more information on what exactly the space's purpose is."

A custom-upholstered bed echoes the plump shape of the living room's bench and stands in contrast to the metal table at left. "I think we wanted to tease out that sense of romance as much as possible with soft pieces pieces like the bench, but also have contrasts with the metals so it doesn't feel <em>too</em> harmonious," de Cárdenas says. The same can be said about the marble dining table: "We felt like we needed some kind of slice like that," says the designer of the harder material. "I think it goes really nicely with the chairs and it upgrades that area. If we'd done something softer, it would have been too harmonious. It's kind of punctuation." The one downside of the table? "It's a real pain to move!" he says. "It takes about four people."

The apartment's bathroom is almost completely swathed in marble.

In the apartment's kitchen, de Cárdenas designed a breakfast nook with soft taupe upholstery and a warm wood table, flanked by a pair of black-and-white prints by Bob Stanley. Work by Lynn Roylance, Gene Davis, Amy Genser, and Rainer Gross (curated by Elizabeth Weiner Gallery) dots the apartment. "The art we used is by artists from all over working in all different styles," notes the designer. "The works are all dynamic in their own right and give the apartment a cosmopolitan vibe, and ultimately the appeal of the Upper West Side is this idea of a New York, intellectual, well-read, well-traveled life."

"I like these kinds of projects—we don't do them that often—but I like it because they're pretty quick and they allow us to do things we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to do," de Cárdenas says of designing a model unit. "The opportunity to design so much custom furniture is really fun for us and it's a good way to explore those studies of new things." The designer eschewed ornate details in favor of more modern silhouettes and a focus on materiality. "We like the streamlined tidiness," he says. "I wouldn't call the pieces minimal, but they are romantic, which goes nicely with the romance the building already has."

For his second ever model apartment, the designer brings a soft touch to the palatial building

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Rafael de Cárdenas Adds a Contemporary Layer to Robert A.M. Stern's The Belnord

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